The present invention relates generally to laundry drying racks, and more particularly to a laundry drying rack having collapsible, scissor legs.
Conventional laundry drying racks are used to dry laundered items. Laundry drying racks have particular application when the laundered items are too delicate to be placed in an electric dryer or may shrink in the dryer's heat. Laundry drying racks may also be used for temporary storage such as during folding or ironing tasks.
In order to minimize the costs of such laundry drying racks to end consumers, it is desirable that the laundry drying racks be shipped and packaged in a disassembled state. Such disassembly allows for the components of such laundry drying rack to be compactly packaged thereby lowering shipping costs. Further avoidance of assembly by the manufacturer avoids the associated assembly costs, the saving of which may be passed along to the consumer. Conventional laundry drying racks, however, frequently comprise numerous components which makes assembly difficult and time consuming. Further, the scissor legs require the use of different lengths on the drying rods and this complicates manufacture, confuses persons assembling the dryer racks, and increases costs.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved laundry drying rack which is structurally stable, easy to assemble, and less expensive to manufacture.
More specifically, a prior art drying rack is shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. It has two end frames 20 made of a plurality of inner members or inner legs 22 with upper and lower ends 24a, 24b, respectively, and outer member or outer legs 26 with upper and lower ends 28a, 28b, respectively. The inner and outer legs 24, 28 are rotatably joined at joint 30 which is at or near the center of the legs where they cross each other. Various types of connectors can be used to form rotation joint 30, with a tubular sheath being preferred. The rotatably joined legs 22, 26 are also referred to as scissor linkages. The pivotally joined legs 22, 26 form a generally X-shaped frame assembly that rotates about an axis perpendicular to the lengths of the legs 22, 26, through the joint 30. Two or three such X-shaped assemblies are stacked on top of each other, with the upper end 24a of an inner leg 22 on a lower frame being rotatably joined to the lower end 26b of an outer leg 26 on the next highest frame, and the upper end 28a of an outer leg 26 being rotatably joined to the lower end 24b of an inner leg 22 on the next highest frame. More specifically, each leg 22, 26 has an inner side 22i, 26i facing toward the opposing end frame and an outer side 22o, 26o facing away from the opposing end frame.
When these various frames are joined to achieve the desired height of the dryer rack, the end frames form scissor type connectors with all of the inner legs 22 parallel and inclined one direction and all of the outer legs 26 parallel and inclined in an opposite direction. The same construction applies to both of the end frames 20.
Cross members 32, typically cylindrical rods, join the end frames 20, typically at each rotatable joint in the ends 24, 28, and optionally at the middle joint 30. Items of clothing are hung on the cross-members 32. Fasteners 33 connect the cross members 32 to one or both of the ends 24, 28.
The top frame has ends 24a, 28a extending upward. To stabilize the frame, these ends 24a, 28a are typically connected by a connecting member or latching member 34 extending between and connecting distal ends 24a, 28a on the top of each end frame 20.
Because the end frames 20 are formed by crossing the legs 22, 26, the ends 24a, 28a are offset by the thickness of one of the legs 22, 26. The side of an end frame 20 or of leg 22, 26 facing the other end frame 20 will be referred to as the inner side, and the other side will be referred to as the outer side. The inner leg 22 remains on the inner side of the end frame 20 and the outer leg 26 remains on the outer side of the end frame 20. Thus, the corresponding inner legs 22 on opposing end frames 20 are closer together than the corresponding outer legs 26 on the opposing end frames 20. The cross members 32 connecting distal ends 24a, 28a on opposing end frames 20 are thus of different lengths, often varying by the twice the thickness of legs 22, 24. A longer cross member 32 is needed to connect outer distal ends 28a than to connect inner distal ends 24a. 
A latching member 34 located on the inside end 24a of inner leg 22 is offset inward of the distal end 28a of outer leg 26 by the thickness of the inner leg 22. A latching member 34 located on the inside end 28a of outer leg 26 offset outward of the distal end 26aa of inner leg 22 by the thickness of the outer leg 26. A latching member 34 extending from the inner side of distal end 24a of inner leg 22 will hit the cross member 32 fastened to the distal end 28a. But the cross members 32 do not typically extend much past the surface of outer legs 22. Prior art latch members 34 have thus been located on the inside of both end frames 20, requiring the latch members to be angled to do so since the legs 22, 26 are offset. In other words, cross member 34 has one end rotatably connected to the inside of upper end 24a and connected to the inside of upper end 28a, and because the ends 24a, 28a are offset, the cross member 34 is angled. Often, one end of the cross-member 34 is rotatably connected to the upper end of a leg 22, 26 while the other end is releasably connected as by a hook or latch.
Usually, cross members or rods 32 are placed at several locations along the length of the latch member 34 to allow for flexibility in the number of garments supported and a variety in the manner of supporting garments for drying. Some or all of the cross-members 32 on the latching member 34 are shorter than the other cross-members 34. If the latching member 34 is fastened to the inner side of outer leg 26 then the latching member 34 is angled so it connects inside of the inner leg 22, resulting in the latching member 34 being angled and requiring each of the cross-members 32 held by the latching member 34 to be a different length. Moreover, angling the orientation of latching member 34 either binds the rotation of the cross members 32 passing through the distal ends 28 or requires drilling holes through the latching member 34, both of which are costly, cumbersome, and complicate manufacturing and assembly.
The different lengths of the cross-members 32 complicates manufacturing and shipping, confuses those assembling the dryer racks, and costs more to produce a variety of different parts and put the correct number of each part in the packages. There is thus a need for a foldable dryer rack having a collapsible end frame or frames that use rods of the same length. There is a further need for a latch member that is not inclined so as to twist the end frame(s).